r.' 


\  \ 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL,  SKETCH. 


BIOGRAPHY 


—OF— 


ELDER  JOHN  WINEBRENNER 


COPYRIGriTED,  1880,  BY  DR.  GEORGE  ROSS. 


ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED. 


Ratt 


HARRISBURG,  PA.: 

Dr.  George  Ross,  24  S.  Third  Street. 

1880. 


n' 


'•mmFT 


■■  ^ 


T 


4  ' 


J*’  - 

* 


s . 


'T] 


•  ^ 


\'  . 


4; 

t 


I 

•)  ■ 


;  » 

'  ■  'k-^  ■ 


t 


\ 


>. 


•  /V  ■  '< 


»'  , 


•  «; 

.  * 


■r>- 


v>. 


;  •' 


.  y  ’  * 


•  <  ^ 


/ 


'a'**  ■ 


> » 

•  t 

X.- 


-«4 


.  . 

I  ;:■ 


*  A 
N 

•  kr  ^ . 


■  v 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL  SKETCH. 


BIOGRAPHY 


COPYRIGHTED,  1880,  BY  DR.  GEORGE  ROSS. 


ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED, 


Harrisburg,  pa.: 

Dh.  George  Ross,  24  S.  Third  Street. 

1880. 


r  1 
-i 


6 


The  distinguished  minister  and  re¬ 
former,  John  Winebrenner,  the  third 
son  of  Philip  and  Eve  C.  Winebren¬ 
ner,  whose  maiden  name  was  Barrick, 
was  born  Saturday,  March  25th,  1797, 
in  GladeValley,Woodsborough  district, 
Frederick  county,  Maryland,  about 
eight  miles  north-west  of  Frederiqk, 
and  two  miles  from  Walkersville. 

The  section  of  country  is  known  as 
the  Glades,  the  most  fertile  and  wealthy 
part  of  the  county,  having  within  its 
limits  fine  farms^  and  very  beautiful  and 
picturesque  scenery,affording  the  pleas¬ 
ing  variety  of  mountain  and  valley, 
meadow,  brook  and  woodland. 

The  parents  of  John  Winebrenner 
were  of  German  descent,  and  the  Ger¬ 
man  language  was  spoken  by  the  fam¬ 
ily.  His  father  was  of  limited  educa¬ 
tion,  with  a  strong  mind,  wonderfully 
retentive  memory  and  great  decision 
of  character.  His  mother  was  a  gentle, 
pious  woman,  of  remarkably  good 
mind,  and  more  of  Scotch  than  of  Ger¬ 
man  origin. 

His  father  was  a  successful  farmer. 
The  farm  which  he  owned,  and  on 
which  John  was  born  and  raised,  is  a 
valuable  homestead  of  about  two  hun¬ 
dred  acres,  owned  and  occupied  at  pres¬ 
ent  by  his  nephew,  Reverdy  J.  Wine 
brenner,  whose  present  postoffice  is 
Walkersville,  but  long  ago  Frederick 
was  the  nearest  one. 


The  spacious  stone  farmJiouse  where 
he  spent  part  of  his  youth,  was  built  in 
1810;  but  the  old  log  house  in  which 
he  was  born,  which  stood  about  one 
hundred  and  fifty  yards  distant,  has 
been  torn  down  since,  and  the  place 
where  it  formerly  stood  is  now  part  of  * 
the  meadow. 

His  father  and  mother  were  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  German  Reformed  Church; 
lived  to  a  ripe  old  age,  and  are  buried 
in  the  Glades’  Reformed  Church  grave¬ 
yard,  a  country  church  about  one  mile 
from  the  farm  on  which  the  family 
lived.  His  father  was  born  near  Han¬ 
over,  York  county.  Pa  ,  December  4th, 
1759,  who,  when  a  young  man,  moved 
to  the  farm  in  Maryland,  where  he 
died,  December  11th,  1841.  His 
mother  was  born  June  1st,  1757,  and 
died  September  14th,  1831. 

When  a  lad  his  inclination  to  be  a 
minister  was  so  intense  that  he  often 
tried  to  preach  to  his  comrades,  and 
was  sometimes  heard  making  efforts  to 
preach  in  a  wood  near  his  home.  His 
religious  turn  of  mind  and  reverence 
for  God’s  sanctuary  caused  him,  when 
attending  worship  at  the  Glades’  church, 
to  kneel  down  on  the  door  step  and 
pray  before  entering. 

While  working  on  his  father’s  farm 
he  was  known  to  take  his  Bible  with 
him  and  read  it  when  he  took  the  cattle 
to  and  from  pasture.  Owing  to  his  ex- 


4 


treme  fondness  for  books  and  study  he 
was  often  found  in  the  field  reading, 
and  his  plow  standing  idle,  much  to 
the  disgust  of  his  industrious  father. 

Naturally  studious  and  religiously 
inclined,  the  teachings  and  wise  coun¬ 
sel  of  his  very  pious  and  foresighted 
mother,  whose  form  and  features  he 
inherited,  were  wonderfully  blessed  in 
training  him  ‘4n  the  nurture  and  ad¬ 
monition  of  the  Lord.” 

He  received  his  English  and  German 
education  in  a  country  school,  within  a 
stone’s  throw  of  the  church,  and  about 
a  mile  from  his  home,  called  the  Glades’ 
school;  then  he  was  sent  to  a  more  ad¬ 
vanced  educational  institution  in  Fred¬ 
erick,  and  afterwards  to  Dickinson  Col¬ 
lege,  Carlisle,  Pa.,  where  he  obtained 
his  classical  instruction ;  but  the  college 
records  do  not  show  that  he  graduated. 
He  went  directly  from  college  to  Phil¬ 
adelphia,  Pa.,  where  he  studied  theolo¬ 
gy  for  three  years,  under  instructions 
of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  Helfenstein. 

In  boyhood  he  attended  the  services 
of  the  Glades’  Reformed  Church.  He 
was  baptized,  in  infancy,  Sunday  May 
28th  1797,  by  Rev.  John  William  Run- 
kel,  who  was  pastor  of  the  church 
from  1784  till  1801.  From  that  date 
till  1810  Rev.  Daniel  Wagner  was  his 
ministerial  instructor,  and  Rev.  Jona¬ 
than  Helfenstein  thereafter.  In  the 
Fathers  of  the  Reformed  Church 
both  Rev.  J.  W.  Runkel  and  Rev.  D. 
Wagner  are  mentioned  as  “eminently 
good,  active  in  the  ministry,  and  aim¬ 
ing,  as  much  as  possible,  at  immediate 
effect.”  Afterwards,  in  Philadelphia, 
under  the  preaching  of  his  preceptor. 
Rev.  Dr.  Helfenstein,  in  the  First  Re¬ 
formed  Church,  Race  street,  between 


Third  and  Fourth  streets,  he  was  con¬ 
verted. 

His  conversion  and  religious  exper¬ 
ience  are  graphically  given  in  his  own 
language,  copied  from  Testimony  of  a 
Hundred  Witnesses.  “I  was  gracious¬ 
ly  brought  to  feel  my  obligations  to 
God  at  an  early  age,  and  my  mind  was 
deeply  exercised  on  the  subject  of  my 
soul’s  salvation.  These  convictions, 
however,  would  sometimes  wear  off, 
and  then  be  renewed  again.  Hence,  I 
continued  sinning  and  repenting  for  a 
number  of  years,  till  in  the  winter  of 
1817,  when  deep  and  pungent  convic¬ 
tions  laid  hold  of  my  guilty  soul.  Then, 
like  Job,  ‘I  abhored  myself,’ — like 
Ephraim,  T  bemoaned  myself,’ — with 
the  prodigal,  I  said,  ‘  I  will  arise,  and 
go  to  my  Father,’  and  with  the  publi¬ 
can,  I  cried,  ‘God,  be  merciful  to  me.  a 
sinner.’  And  after  ‘  chattering  like  a 
swallow,’  and  ‘mourning  as  a  dove,’  for 
three  or  four  weary  months,  my  poor 
woe-fraught  soul  found  redemption  in 
Immanuel’s  blood,  even  the  forgive¬ 
ness  of  sins.  It  was  on  Easter  Sab¬ 
bath,  April  6th  1817,  in  the  city  of 
Philadelphia,  in  the  presence  of  a  large 
congregation  of  worshipers,  that  Jesus, 
the  Sun  of  Righteousness  arose  and 
shone  upon  my  soul,  ‘with  healing  in 
his  wings.’  Truly,  that  was  the  hap¬ 
piest  day  of  my  life!  My  darkness 
was  turned  into  day,  and  my  sorrow 
into  joy.  Jesus  became  the  joy  of  my 
heart,  and  the  center  of  my  affections. 
His  people  became  lovely  and  precious 
in  my  sight;  his  word  was  my  delight; 
in  it  1  beheld  new  beauties  and  beati¬ 
tudes.  Sin,  that  dreadful  monster,  be¬ 
came  more  odious  and  hateful  to  my 
soul.  Zion’s  welfare  lay  near  my  heart. 


5 


My  bowels  yearned  for  the  salvation  of 
sinners.  I  was  in  travail  for  my  friends 
and  kindred.  I  felt  constrained  to  join 
with  ‘the  Spirit  and  the  bride,’  and  say 
to  all,  Come,  O  come  to  Jesus  ! 

“  The  work  of  the  ministry  now  be¬ 
came  the  uppermost  desire  of  my  heart. 
This  desire,  somehow,  seemed  like  a 
pent  up  fire  in  my  bones  from  youth 
up.  In  later  years  my  mind  became 
strongly  impressed  with  the  duty  of 
preparing  myself  for  the  gospel  minis¬ 
try.  I  opened  my  mind  to  my  parents, 
and  requested  them  to  have  me  edu¬ 
cated  with  a  view  to  that  office.  My 
mother  readily  consented,  but  my  father 
strenuously  opposed  me.  To  divert  my 
mind  from  this  subject,  and  to  induce 
me  to  abandon  the  idea  of  the  ministry, 
he  made  various  propositions.  One 
was,  to  send  me  to  Baltimore,  and  to 
have  me  become  a  merchant.  Another 
was,  to  send  me  to  Frederick  city,  to 
read  law,  or  study  medicine.  Anything 
he  seemed  to  think  would  be  prefera¬ 
ble  to  that  of  becoming  a  preacher  of 
the  gospel. .  However,  none  of  these 
proposals  had  any  claims  for  me,  and 
the  more  I  was  opposed  the  stronger 
my  inclinations  and  desires  grew  for 
the  Christian  ministry.  I  felt,  and 
sometimes  said,  nothing,  I  believe,  in 
all  the  world  would  give  me  perma¬ 
nent  satisfaction  and  contentment  but 
preaching  the  gospel.  My  father  at 
last  yielded  to  my  wishes ;  sent  me  to 
school;  had  me  educated,  and  assisted 
me  far  beyond  what  I  expected.  Thus 
the  Lord,  ‘  whose  I  am,  and  whom  I 
serve,’  opened  my  way,  and  enabled 
me  to  prepare  for  my  high  vocation.” 

In  this  manner,  and  with  a  wonder¬ 
ful  combination  of  specially  rare  gifts, 


this  modest,  humble,  yet  determined 
servant  of  God,  “full  of  faith  and  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,”  was  prepared  for  an 
active  and  aggressive  warfare  against 
sin. 

The  German  Reformed  charge  at 
Harrisburg,  Pa.,  having  been  without 
a  pastor  for  several  months,  on  the  re¬ 
commendation  of  Rev.  Jonathan  Hel- 
fenstein,  of  Frederick,  Md.,  he  was 
asked  to  preach  for  these  congregations. 
Responding  to  their  solicitations,  he 
delivered  his  first  religious  discourse 
Sunday,  February  28th,  1819,  and  re¬ 
visited  them  Sunday  May  21st,  and 
November  28th,  1819.  These  sermons 
were  preached  in  the  old  frame  church 
building  that  then  stood  on  South 
Third  ‘street,  below  Chestnut,  on  the 
corner  of  Cherry  alley.  As  a  result  of 
these  services  the  vestry  of  the  church 
called  a  meeting,  by  printed  notice,  of 
the  male  members  of  the  congregation, 
to  assemble  at  the  ringing  of  the  court 
house  bell  (this  was  rung  for  all  the 
churches,  as  none  of  them  had  bells  at 
that  time)  on  Thursday  evening,  De¬ 
cember  16,  1819,  for  the  purpose  of 
calling  a  minister.  At  this  meeting 
Rev.  John  Winebrenner,  then  a  theo- 
logical  student  in  Philadelphia,  was 
elected  their  future  pastor.  He  received 
forty- three  votes  and  his  competitor. 
Rev.  Lewis  Mayer,  D.  D.,  five  votes; 
but  the  call  was  made  unanimous  at  the 
same  meeting.  This  result  was  com¬ 
municated  to  him  by  a  letter  dated 
December  27th,  1819,  saying  that  he 
had  been  unanimously  elected  to  take 
charge  of  the  churches,four  in  number, 
namely :  Harrisburg,  Shoop’s  and 

Wenrick’s  in  Dauphin  county,  and  Sa¬ 
lem’s  near  Sbiremanstown,  in  Cumber- 


6 


/ 


land  county.  They  agreed  to  pay  him 
07ie  thousand  dollars  per  annum,  as 
follows : 

Harrisburg,  for  preaching  every  two 
weeks,  $425;  Wenrick’s,  for  preaching 
once  in  four  weeks,  $150;  Shoop’s,  for 
preaching  once  in  four  weeks,  $150; 
Salem’s,  for  preaching  once  in  two 
weeks,  $275.,  He  answered  by  letter 
dated  January  28th,  1820,  that  he  could 
not  come  to  take  charge  of  the  congre¬ 
gations  until  he  had  completed  his  the¬ 
ological  course,  and  until  after  the 
meeting  of  the  next  Synod,  when  he 
intended  to  offer  himself  as  a  candidate 
for  examination. 

Accordingly,  on  a  call  from  the  Har¬ 
risburg  church  and  connected  congre¬ 
gations,  he  was  licensed  and  ordained 
to  the  office  of  the  sacred  ministry  by 
the  General  Synod  of  the  German  Re¬ 
formed  Church,  which  convened  in 
Zion’s  Church,  at  Hagerstown,  Mary¬ 
land,  September,  24th,  1820.  October 
4th,  of  the  same  year,  he  sent  his  letter 
of  acceptance  to  the  above  named 
charge.  He  preached  his  introductory 
sermon  at  Harrisburg,  Fa.,  on  Sunday, 
October  22d,  1820. 

He  was  then  a  zealous  young  minis¬ 
ter,  brilliant  of  mind,  a  diligent  student 
and  a  good,  earnest  Christian,  fully 
forty  years  ahead  of  the  times,  and  of 
many  of  the  church  members  and  pro¬ 
fessing  Christians.  He  was  in  favor 
of  revivals  of  religion,  Sunday-schools 
and  temperance ;  was  strongly  opposed 
to  human  slavery  ;  preached  in  the  pul¬ 
pits  of  churches  with  so-called  unor- 
dained  ministers,  and  invited  them  to 
preach  for  his  congregation  and  to 
assist  him  in  his  meetings;  and  besides 
preached  vigorously  against  theatres. 


balls,  lotteries,  gambling  and  horse 
racing.  The  vestry  and  a  portion  of 
the  members  of  his  churches  were  de¬ 
cidedly  opposed  to  his  course  in  these 
things.  So  that  what  is  now  consider¬ 
ed  commendable  and  perfectly  ortho¬ 
dox,  was  made  cause  for  strife  and  op¬ 
position. 

Elder  Winebrenner  was  married  by 
Rev.  James  R.  Reiley,  Thursday, 
October  10th,  1822,  to  Charlotte  M. 
Reutter,  of  Harrisburg.  This  relation¬ 
ship  was  blessed  with  three  children, 
only  one  of  which  survived  him. 

As  the  congregations  had  been  with 
out  a  regular  pastor  for  about  one  and 
a  half  years  previously,  diligent  efforts 
were  made  to  push  forward  the  work 
of  the  Lord.  As  one  of  the  measures 
to  this  end,  a  Sunday-school  was  organ  • 

ized  November,  - ,  1820,  of  which 

he  was  the  first  president.  Preliminary 
steps  were  also  taken  to  build  a  new 
church  edifice.  Subscriptions  were 
taken,  and  Rev.  Winebrenner  not  only 
subcribed  one  hundred  dollars,  but  vis¬ 
ited  Heading  and  Philadelphia,  and 
succeeded  in  collecting  a  considerable 
sum  for  that  project.  The  members  at 
home  gave  liberally.  The  corner  stone 
was  laid  June  11th,  1821,  and  the  brick 
church,  at  the  corner  of  Chestnut  and 
Third  streets  was  dedicated  with  ap¬ 
propriate  ceremonies  August  4th,  1822. 
When  he  took  charge  of  the  congrega¬ 
tions  he  discovered  a  low  state  of  ex¬ 
perimental  religion  existing  among  the 
people,  the  result,  in  part,  of  having 
been  without  a  pastor  for  over  a  year. 
He  was,  therefore,  prompted  to  make 
special  efforts  to  raise  the  standard  of 
true  piety,  and  as  his  preaching  was 
searching  and  impressive  many  persons 


7 


became  seriously  alarmed,  began  to  in¬ 
quire,  “What  must  I  do  to  be  saved 
and  soon  found  peace  and  salvation. 
But,  to  use  his  own  words,  “as  revivals 
of  religion  were  new  and  almost  un¬ 
heard  of  things  in  those  days,  especially 
among  the  German  people  of  that  re¬ 
gion,  this  work  of  God  failed  not  to 
excite  opposition  among  hypocrites, 
false  professors  and  the  wicked  gener¬ 
ally  ;  just  as  true  revivals  of  religion, or 
genuine  works  of  grace  have  very  gen¬ 
erally  done.  And  as  the  members  of 
these  congregations  or  churches  were 
unconverted,  with  few  exceptions,  and 
many  grossly  ignorant  of  the  right 
ways  of  the  Lord,  the  most  violent  op¬ 
position  and  persecution  arose  from 
that  quarter,  aided  by  not  a  few  of  the 
ministers  of  their  Synod  (Hist,  of  De¬ 
nominations,  page  172).  Some  of  the 
members  were  not  satisfied,  and  appli¬ 
cation  was  made  to  the  Synod  of  the 
Reformed  Church,  which  met  at  Har¬ 
risburg,  September  29th,  1822,  to  in¬ 
vestigate  the  causes  of  dissatisfaction 
existing  between  the  congregations  and 
minister.  Also  another  document  was 
submitted  containing  a  series  of  com¬ 
plaints.”  Synod  only  noticed  the  first 
one,  upon  which  it  appointed  a  commit¬ 
tee  of  seven,  which  met  in  Hanisburg, 
October  2d,  1822.  This  committee 
took  notice  of  the  whole  matter,  and 
its  decision  advised  reconciliation  by 
forgiving  and  forgetting  all  past  differ¬ 
ences,  and  to  live  in  future  in  peace  and 
harmony.  The  committee,  vestry  and 
Elder  Winebrenner  met  face  to  face, 
and  continued  in  session  from  seven 

j 

o’clock  in  the  evening  till  two  o’clock 
next  morning.  The  “complaints”  were 
read,  and  then  answered  by  him.  The 


following  are  the  items  of  dissatisfac¬ 
tion  upon  which  the  committee  acted  : 

Complaints  Against  the  Kev.  John  Wine¬ 
brenner. 

I.  “  That  he  proceeds  in  the  affairs 
of  the  church  at  Harrisburg  as  if  there 
were  no  vestry,  as  he  never  consults 
them  on  any  occasion. 

II.  “In  his  recommendation  to  at¬ 
tend  strictly  divine  worship  he  men¬ 
tioned  the  Methodist  church  particu¬ 
larly  as  a  suitable  place  for  his  congre¬ 
gation,  and  on  the  same  day  after  such 
recommendation  he  preached  in  the 
Methodist  church ;  he  further  stated 
that  if  any  members  could  not  derive 
benefit  by  attending  our  church,  they 
should  leave  it ;  and  that  he  himself 
would  never  have  joined  this  church  if 
he  had  not  devoted  himself  to  the  min¬ 
istry.  And  at  the  time  of  the  quarterly 
meeting  of  the  Methodists,  at  Harris¬ 
burg,  Pa.,  he  attended  there,  and  took 
Love-Feast  with  them,  and  kept  his 
own  congregation  waiting  till  he  re¬ 
turned  from  the  Methodist  meeting 
house. 

III.  “He  held  prayer  meetings, de¬ 
nominated  anxious  meetings,  where  he 
divided  the  members  into  two'classes : 
First,  those  that  say  they  have  experi¬ 
enced  a  change,  and  believe  themselves 
to  be  Christians ;  and,  secondly,  the 
sinners,  those  who  believe  themselves 
to  be  mourning  sinners  ;  and  during  all 
prayer  meetings  he  encourages  groan¬ 
ing,  thereby  disturbing  others  who 
might,  if  the  groaning  was  omitted,  re¬ 
ceive  some  benefit ;  allows  during 
prayer,  certain  persons  to  respond, 
Amen!  Amen  I  thereby  drawing  the  at¬ 
tention  of  the  gazing  crowd,  who  usu¬ 
ally  collect  on  the  outside. 


8 


IV.  “At  a  meeting  held,  which  he 
called  a  conference  meeting,  on  the  last 
Monday  of  July,  he  allowed  persons  to 
converse,  encouraged  the  Christians  to 
speak  to  sinners,  when  Mr.  Winebren- 
ner,  Mr.  Jacob  Helfenstein,Mr.  Knouse, 
Mr.  Krause,  Mr.  Officer,  Mrs.  Wether- 
holt  and  others,  at  one  and  the  same 
time  exhorted,  prayed  and  continued 
until  James  Officer  commenced  singing 
a  lively  tune,  which  produced  a  state 
of  confusion  among  them ;  after  that 
Mr.  Winebrenner  called  out,  if  any  per¬ 
sons  wished  to  be  prayed  for,  they 
should  come  forward,  that  then  num¬ 
bers  came  forward,  and  Mr.  Knouse 
prayed  for  them. 

V.  “At  a  meeting  held  on  the  last 
Monday  in  May,  which  he  called  an 
experience  and  conference  meeting, 
which  began  at  seven  o’clock  in  the 
evening,  he  kept  together  all  who 
would  stay  till  four  o’clock  in  the  morn¬ 
ing,  at  the  breaking  up  of  which  he 
said,  ‘This  is  the  way  to  fan  the  chaff 
from  the  wheat.’ 

VI.  “His  denunciation  from  the 
pulpit  towards  members  and  others  has 
caused  members  to  withdraw  them- 
selves  from  the  church ;  and  on  one  oc¬ 
casion,  when  he  preached  a  funeral  ser¬ 
mon,  he  said,  “  If  I  were  to  judge  from 
Scripture,  the  majority  buried  in  the 
neighboring  graves  must  be  in  hell !” 
From  which  expression  he  gave  a  gen¬ 
eral  dissatisfaction  to  the  by  standers 
on  the  burying  ground.  Afterwards 
he  said  from  the  pulpit,  he  excepted 
the  children  from  the  expression  given 
in  the  grave  yard,  thereby  evidencing 
the  general  displeasure  his  expressions 
have  given  to  the  people. 


VII.  “He  is  now  making,  or  has 
already  made,  arrangements  to  give  up 
two  of  the  congregations  which  form 
a  part  of  our  connection,  viz.:  At 
Wenrick’s  and  Shoop’s  churches,  there¬ 
by  imposing  a  burden  on  the  two  re¬ 
maining  congregations  to  provide  sup¬ 
port  for  himself  and  his  successor, 
which  was  ere  this  done  by  the  four 
congregations.  All  this  is  done  with¬ 
out  consulting  of  the  vestry,  or  mem¬ 
bership  of  the  adhering  congregations. 

VIII.  “  He  has  given  such  general 
dissatisfaction  that  on  several  late  oc¬ 
casions  where  there  were  funerals  in 
families  of  his  members  they  passed 
by ;  would  not  have  him  to  attend 
their  funerals,  and  obtained  mioisters  of 
other  denominations. 

IX.  “  He  has  admitted  persons  (who 
on  account  of  misconduct  in  the  church 
they  previously  belonged  were  expell¬ 
ed  from  membership)  to  become  mem¬ 
bers  of  our  church  without  consulting 
the  vestry. 

X.  “He  is  very  remiss  in  visiting 
members  of  our  congregation,  especi¬ 
ally  at  such  times  when  any  are  sick ; 
and  he  absents  himself  from  his  resi¬ 
dence,  that  he  cannot  pay  the  neces¬ 
sary  visits  to  his  members ;  and  he  has 
refused  baptizing  children  of  the  mem¬ 
bers,  when  he  had  been  particularly  re¬ 
quested.” 

In  commenting  upon  and  answering 
these  “complaints’’  before  the  commit¬ 
tee,  Elder  Winebrenner  said  :  “I  am 
brought  to  the  disagreeable  necessity  of 
declaring  a  great  portion  of  them  in 
correct,  and  devoid  of  truth.  There 
are,  however,  I  admit,  some  facts  con¬ 
tained  in  that  paper,  which,  when  freed 


9 


from  error  and  misrepresentation,  I  am 
not  ashamed  to  confess.” 

Our  space  will  only  permit  a  con¬ 
densed  report  of  the  answer  to  the 
“complaints.” 

On  the  -first,  he  admitted  that  he  did 
not  always  consult  the  consistory,  be¬ 
cause  he  knew  that  no  harmonious  co¬ 
operation  could  be  had,  but  he  did 
sometimes ;  besides,  it  did  not  consult 
him  invariably  either. 

On  the  second,  he  said  that  he  did 
preach  for  the  Methodists,  took  love- 
feast  with  them,  and  on  a  certain  occa¬ 
sion,  when  he  intended  to  preach  for 
them,  he  invited  his  people  to  come  to 
hear  him  ;  and  as  his  congregation  was 
without  preaching  every  other  Sabbath 
he  recommended  it  to  go  to  other 
churches  on  the  intervening  Sabbath. 
But  that  he  kept  his  congregation 
waiting  longer  than  usual,  at  the  time 
he  took  love-feast  with  the  Methodists, 
was  incorrect.  Moreover,  he  was  griev¬ 
ed  to  see  so  many  professors  of  religion 
so  destitute  of  charity  as  scarcely  to  go 
into  any  place  of  worship  than  their 
own. 

On  the  third,  he  stated  that  he  held 
anxious  meetings,  and  in  order  to  ascer¬ 
tain  who  were  awakened,  and  who  were 
not,  it  was  mentioned  that  they  should 
occupy  separate  rooms,  or  different 
parts  of  the  same  room,  but  every  one 
was  free  to  determine  where  and  with 
whom  to  sit.  That  he  did  not  encour¬ 
age  groaning ;  however,  when  sinners 
groan  for  redemption  he  delighted  to 
hear  it,  but  when  it  proceeds  from 
mere  habit  it  was  vain  and  unprofitable. 

On  the  fourth,  he  said,  “The  object 
contemplated  at  that  meeting  was  to 
hold  a  free  conversation  with  each 


other  on  experimental  religion,”  and 
what  is  complained  of  is  true,  with  the 
exception  of  a  few  mistakes. 

On  the  fifth,  he  stated  that  he  did 
keep  up  the  meeting  till  four  o’clock  in 
the  morning ;  “but  the  last  expression 
was  unfounded.” 

On  the  sixth,  he  said  “If  men  will 
become  my  enemies,  yea,  withdraw 
themselves  from  the  church  because  I 
tell  them  the  truth,  I  cannot  help  it ; 
but  I  know  of  none  save  perhaps  the 
few  men  who  have  lodged  these  com¬ 
plaints  against  me.”  And  in  relation 
to  the  probable  state  of  dead  adults,  he 
referred  them  to  Matthew  vii:13,  14, 
and  Luke  xiii:24. 

■  On  the  seventh,  he  stated  that  as 
Middletown  and  Hummelstown  were 
once  part  of  the  Harrisburg  charge,and 
are  destitute  of  preaching,  he  intended 
to  supply  them  for  a  while,  provided 
the  arrangements  could  be  made  with 
the  country  churches. 

On  the  eighth,  he  said,  “I  do  rejoice 
to  say  that,  so  far  as  I  know,  the  pious 
and  serious  part  of  the  congregation 
have  always  been  my  warm  and  affec¬ 
tionate  friends.” 

On  the  ninth,  he  admitted  that  he 
did  receive  one  person  who  was  form¬ 
erly  a  member  of  another  Church,  and 
had  been  excommunicated.  But  at  the 
time  he  was  admitted  to  church  fellow¬ 
ship  he  had  professed  conversion. 

On  the  tenth,  he  stated  that  he  was 
not  aware  of  the  fact  of  a  certain  per¬ 
son  being  sick,  or  he  would  have  visited 
him.  He  said  further,  that  he  had  re¬ 
fused,  and  would  continue  to  refuse,  to 
baptize  the  children  of  unbelieving 
parents. 


10 


With  this  unsettled  condition  of 
affairs,  Elder  Winebrenner  preached  a 
sermon,  in  the  German  language,  on 
Sunday  morning,  March  23d,  1823;  and 
as  he  had  a  funeral  in  the  country  in 
the  afternoon  he  engaged  a  minister, 
named  Mr.  Brown,  to  preach  for  him ; 
but  as  Mr.  Brown  was  not  a  member 
of  the  German  Reformed  Synod,  some 
of  the  authorities  of  the  church  prohib¬ 
ited  the  sexton  from  ringing  the  bell 
and  unlocking  the  door  of  the  church. 
This  made  the  prospect  for  reconcilia¬ 
tion  almost  hopeless.  The  same  eve¬ 
ning  Elder  Winebrenner  preached  in 
the  English  language  at  early  candle 
light,  and  after  services  said,  “I  shall 
not  appoint  the  time  for  another  meet¬ 
ing,  as  I  do  not  know  that  I  can  be  the 
pastor  of  this  congregation  any  longer, 
unless  that  I  shall  again  preach  on  Fri¬ 
day  evening  next;  and  if  I  do  preach 
then  I’ll  preach  on  the  following  Sun- 
day.” 

After  the  congregation  was  dismiss¬ 
ed  the  vestry  asked  him  why  he  had 
made  such  an  announcement;  to  which 
he  replied,  that  he  wanted  to  know 
whether  they  approved  of  the  course  of 
one  of  the  vestry  in  not  letting  Mr. 
Brown  preach,  and  also  whether  they 
would  make  up  the  same  salary  they 
did  the  first  year.  To  the  first  question 
they  answered  “Yes.”  To  the  second 
one  they  replied,  “No;  because  through 
his  course  many  of  the  paying  mem¬ 
bers  stayed  away,  and  consequently 
they  could  not  do  it.” 

A  very  critical  state  of  affairs  had 
now  been  reached.  Various  efforts 
were  made  by  the  friends  of  Eld. 
Winebrenner  to  bring  matters  into 
harmony  again.  There  was  division  in 


the  congregation;  and  an  attempt  was 
made  to  reconcile  both  parties,  provid¬ 
ed  he  would  quit  holding  so  many 
prayer- meetings,  which  he  absolutely 
refused  to  do.  From  some  cause,  not 
now  known,  he  did  not  preach  on  the 
Friday  evening  as  announced  from  the 
pulpit  on  the  Sunday  evening  previ¬ 
ous.  This  the  vestry  took  to  mean  a 
resignation  of  the  charge.  But  he  did 
not  so  understand  it,  and  continued  to 
manifest  a  desire  to  preach  for  the  con¬ 
gregation.  On  this  account,  and  be¬ 
cause  fully  one-half  of  the  membership 
were  his  friends,  the  vestry  met  at  his 
home  on  a  week  day  evening,  when 
these  prominent  members  of  the  church 
said  that  they  had  come  to  hold  a  con¬ 
ference  with  him  as  to  what  he  intend¬ 
ed  to  do,  and  also  to  tell  him  what  ar¬ 
rangements  they  would  make  with  him 
for  the  future.  They  told  him  they  had 
collected  the  salary  due  him,  and  if  he 
would  conform  to  their  rules  they 
would  pay  him  the  money,  and  continue 
him  as  their  pastor.  They  said,  he 
must  preach  for  them  only,  and  not  for 
other  congregations,  and  hereafter  not 
invite  so-called  unordained  ministers  to 
preach  in  his  pulpit,  and  not  hold  more 
than  one  prayer  meeting  a  week,  nor 
keep  it  up  later  than  nine  o’clock  at 
night.  To  this  he  answered:  “I  will 
not  consent  to  these  arrangements,  for 
I  am  a  free  man,  preach  a  free  gospel, 
and  I  will  go  where  the  Lord  calls  me 
to  go  ” 

The  Sunday  after  this  occurrence  he 
went  to  the  church  to  preach,  but  the 
door  was  locked  and  a  large  crowd  had 
collected  on  the  pavement  and  street. 
Finding  that  he  could  not  enter  the 
building  he  and  about  one-half  of  the 


11 


congregation,  with  many  others  that 
were  attracted  there,  proceeded  to  the 
bank  of  the  Susquehanna  river,  near 
the  Harris  grave,  where  he  preached  a 
sermon  to  them. 

Part  of  the  congregation,  soon  after 
this,  held  a  meeting  and  resolved  that 
it  considered  itself  absolved  from  the 
connection  that  hitherto  existed  between 
it  and  Rev.  John  Winebrenner,  after 
the  date  of  his  announcement  from  the 
pulpit,  namely,  March  23d,  1823.  But 
this  was  unsatisfactory  to  the  other  part 
ot  the  congregation,  and  another  meet¬ 
ing  of  the  male  members  was  held  on 
Friday,  April  18th,  for  the  purpose  of 
deciding  whether  they  would  ask  him 
to  resume  the  pastorate.  After  “a  full 
debate  and  a  great  discussion,”  they 
resolved,  by  a  unanimous  vote,  not  to 
retain  him,  as  their  pastor.  But  as  the 
friends  of  Elder  Winebrenner  had  with¬ 
drawn  before  the  vote  was  taken,  only 
twenty-one  ballots  were  cast. 

This  whole  difficulty  was  brought 
before  the  German  Reformed  Synod  at 

Bedford,  Pa.,  September,  -  1824, 

which  decided  that  the  Harrisburg 
charge  was  not  vacant,  and  that  it 
must  hold  an  election  “whether  Mr. 
Winebrenner  shall  be  their  pastor  or 
not?”  Soon  after  Elder  Winebrenner 
returned  from  Synod  he  notified  the 
vestry,  October  11th,  1824,  of  the  Syn¬ 
od’s  decision.  But  as  it  paid  no  atten¬ 
tion  to  it,  a  printed  notice  was  served 
on  the  congregations,  by  his  friends, 
ordering  an  election  November  3d,  1824, 
by  printed  tickets,  as  follows ;  “For  J. 
Winebrenner,”  “Against  J.  Winebren¬ 
ner. 

This  ballot  did  not  cure  the  trouble, 
because  only  the  adherents  of  Elder 


Winebrenner  attended  the  election; 
nevertheless  he  was  elected  by  a  major¬ 
ity  of  nearly  two  hundred  of  the  male 
members  of  the  congregations.  His 
opponents  absented  themselves,  and  did 
not  give  the  matter  any  recognition  at 
all.  For  they  had  long  before  that 
time  called  and  elected  Rev.  Albert 
Helfenstein,  Jr.,  to  the  charge,  who 
became  their  pastor  March  24th,  1824, 
and  continued  his  ministry  till  Septem¬ 
ber  8th,  1829. 

In  the  meantime  he  was  active  in 
the  work  of  his  Master,  holding  prayer 
and  experience  meetings  three  and  four 
evenings  every  week,  preaching  every 
evening  during  the  week,  and  deliver¬ 
ing  from  three  to  five  sermons  on  Sab¬ 
bath,  with  grand  results.  His  whole 
life  seemed  to  be  wrapped  up  in  the 
saving  of  precious  souls.  Writing  to 
his  sister,  from  Harrisburg,  February 
19th,  1822,  he  says:  “We  have  very 
good  and  pleasant  times  here;  from 
three  to  four  prayer-meetings  in  our 
congregation  each  week.  And  the 
Lord  sometimes  comes  in  sacred  near¬ 
ness  to  our  souls  while  we  are  waiting 
for  him.  Sinners  are  awakened  and 
made  to  cry  for  mercy.  Oh,  that  God 
may  be  with  us  still,  and  delight  to 
bless  us.” 

Matters  had  now  culminated  in  a 
formal  separation,  for  a  large  number 
of  the  friends  of  Elder  Winebrenner 
withdrew  from  the  congregation.  These, 
with  Elder  Winebrenner,  worshiped  in 
the  Court  House,  where  from  fifty  to 
one  hundred  professed  faith  in  Christ, 
in  the  market  house,  on  the  river  bank, 
in  private  houses,  in  fields,  in  groves, 
and  frequently  in  a  lumber  yard,  where 


12 


the  Pennsylvania  railroad  depot  now 
stands. 

They  were  decidedly  aggressive, 
holding  meetings  by  day  and  by  night. 
There  were  almost  daily  conversions, 
and  in  turn  violent  opposition  and  per¬ 
secution.  The  work  of  grace  spread 
far  and  wide,  and  calls  for  preaching 
came  from  many  places,  which  were 
cheerfully  and  quickly  responded  to. 
As  the  word  was  preached  with  great 
power,  both  in  English  and  German, 
by  the  now  noted  revivalist,  multitudes 
flocked  to  the  standard  of  the  cross. 
Then  a  new  inspiration  seized  the  con¬ 
verts,  who,  with  their  leader,  built 
meeting  houses,  organized  churches, 
and  looked  prayerfully  and  in  faith  to 
God  for  success. 

Elder  Winebrenner’s  complete  separ¬ 
ation  from  the  Synod  did  not  take 
place  until  1828,  as  the  following  ex¬ 
tracts  from  the  minutes  will  show: 

‘‘Minutes  of  September,  1834,  Bedford,  Pa.” 

“The  committee  on  correspondence 
reported  further: 

“The  congregation  at  Harrisburg 
complains  in  reference  to  the  conduct 
of  the  Rev.  J.  Winebrenner;  hopes  the 
Shoop’s  and  Wenrich’s  congregations 
will  soon  connect  themselves  with  the 
Harrisburg  congregation,  and  refers  to 
J udge  Bucher  for  an  explanation  of  the 
matter.” 

“On  motion,  the  subject  was  defer¬ 
red  until  to-morrow”  (page  11). 

“As  the  matters  relating  to  the  Har¬ 
risburg  congregation  came  now  under 
consideration,  it  was,  on  the  motion  of 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Reily, 

“  Resolved,  That  the  Harrisburg, 
Shoop’s,  Wenrich’s,  and  Peace  [Salem] 
congregations  hold  an  election  whether 


Mr.  Winebrenner  shall  be  their  pastor 
or  not’’  (page  28). 

(Mr.  Winebrenner  was  present  at 
this  meeting  of  Synod.) 

“  Minutes  of  September,  1825.  Philadelphia.’ 

“The  Committee  on  Correspondence 
reported : 

“A  letter  from  the  congregation  at 
Harrisburg. 

'"'‘Resolved,  That  the  subject  be  de¬ 
ferred  until  the  report  on  the  proceed¬ 
ings  of  the  Lebanon  Classis  is  received” 
(page  6). 

“  In  reference  to  the  Harrisburg  con¬ 
gregation,  and  the  Rev.  Winebrenner, 
the  matter  was,  after  much  discussion 
on  both  sides  of  the  question,  disposed 
of  by  a  majority  vote,  which  in  the  form 
of  a  resolution  was  laid  before  Synod 
by  Rev.  Wendel. 

“Question — Has  the  Lebanon  Classis 
acted  right  in  this  matter  or  not? 

“After  the  matter  was  fully  discussed, 
both  for  and  against,  the  Synod  decided 
that  the  Classis  has  well  considered  all 
matters  and  acted  right  (page  8.) 

(No  clue  is  given  in  the  minutes  as 
to  the  nature  of  the  action  of  the 
Lebanon  Classis.) 

“Minutes  of  September,  1826,  Frederick,  Md, 

“The  Committee  on  Correspondence 
reported. 

“A  letter  from  the  Rev.  Henry  Hoff- 
meier,  in  which  he  complains,  in  a 
moderate  way,  of  the  disorderly  con¬ 
duct  of  the  Rev.  J.  Winebrenner,  H. 
Habliston  and  D.  Werz. 

“  Resolved,  That  this  Synod  cannot 
take  up  and  decide  this  matter,  because 
the  complaints  in  the  letter  against  the 
brethren  should  properly,  in  the  first 
place,  come  before  the  Classis”  (page  7). 


13 


(The  foregoing  is  translated  from  the 
German  language.) 

“Minutes  of  September,  1837,  York,  Pa. 

“Committee  on  Minutes  of  Classes 
report  in  regard  to  minutes  of  Lebanon 
Classis. 

“Charges  against  the  Rev.  John 
Winebrenner. 

Resolved,  That  they  be  referred  to  a 
committee,  who  shall  meet  in  a  place 
to  be  appointed  by  themselves,  to  try 
these  charges  against  Rev.  John  Wine¬ 
brenner,  and  make  report  to  Synod. 
The  committee  are  Rev.  F.  W.  Van- 
dersloot,  Lebrecht  L.  Hirsch  and  J acob 
Beecher”  (page  9). 

“Minutes  of  September,  1838,  MifiBinburg,  Pa 

“The  committee  which  had  been 
appointed  by  the  Synod,  at  a  meeting 
held  at  York,  Pa.,  to  investigate  the 
case  of  Rev.  Messrs.  Winebrenner  and 
Habliston,  and  to  report  at  this  meet¬ 
ing,  reported  that  Mr.  Winebrenner 
had  not  obeyed  their  citation,  and  he 
did  not  appear  before  them ;  and  that, 
in  their  opinion,  he  ought  not  to  be 
any  longer  considered  a  member  of  this 
body. 

“The  report,  and  the  judgment  ex¬ 
pressed  in  it,  were  approved”  (page  6). 

About  1825,  more  extensive  revivals 
of  religion  prevailed  in  many  towns 
and  neighborhoods.  And  as  the  views 
of  Elder  Winebrenner  had  gradually 
undergone  a  material  change,  as  to 
church  organization,  ordinances,  titles 
and  government,  he  united  with  others 
in  adopting  the  apostolic  plan  and  the 
New  Testament  name  in  establishing 
churches.  As  a  result,  in  October, 
1830,  at  Harrisburg,  he,  in  connection 
with  five  other  ministers,  namely,  An¬ 


drew  Miller,  John  Elliott,  John  Wal- 
born,  David  Maxwell  and  James  Rich¬ 
ards,  representing*  a  number  of  local 
churches,  agreed  to  form  themselves, 
for  more  successful  co-operation,  into 
an  Eldership,  under  the  title  of  “The 
General  Eldership  of  the  Church 
OP  God.” 

Elder  Winebrenner  was  tall  and  slen¬ 
der,  about  six  feet  high,  and  very  erect, 
whether  walking  or  standing  in  the  pul¬ 
pit;  with  high  and  prominent  forehead, 
and  rather  long,  thin  face,  bluish  eyes, 
inclining  to  gray ;  his  hair  was  smooth 
and  of  light  chestnut  color  when 
young;  later  in  life  it  was  slightly 
mixed  with  gray,  and  which  he  wore 
rather  long.  Dignity  and  solemnity 
were  prominent  features  in  his  counte¬ 
nance  ;  and  it  was  impossible  to  be 
in  his  company  without  feeling  that 
you  were  in  the  presence  of  a  great  and 
good  man.  Yet  there  was  so  little 
stiffness  in  his  manners  that  a  little 
child  could  readily  approach  him  with 
confidence. 

His  preaching  was  generally  method¬ 
ical,  and  so  logical  that  his  positions 
were  almost  irresistible;  his  delivery 
was  easy  and  deliberate ;  and  while  he 
was  mild  and  affectionate  to  inquiring 
penitents,  his  reproofs  to  rebellious  sin¬ 
ners  were  often  terrible  in  their  charac¬ 
ter.  He  used  his  index  finger  with 
telling  effect  in  his  gestures.  Besides, 
his  subjects  were  always  selected  to  suit 
the  circumstances  and  localities  in 
which  he  preached. 

He  was  very  popular  with  unpreju¬ 
diced  men,  who  read  and  thought  for 
themselves.  This  class  was  universally 
attracted  to  him,  and  when  they  once 


14 


heard  him  preach  the  truth  as  it  is  in 
Christ  Jesus  they  became  his  real 
friends  and  defenders.  Many  such 
were  converted  through  his  preaching. 

It  is  a  significant  tribute  to  the  per¬ 
sonal  power  of  Elder  Winebrenner, 
that  wherever  he  went,  among  all  de¬ 
dominations,  impartial  men  acknowl¬ 
edged  his  ability  as  a  reformer.  His 
sermons  had  great  power  in  convincing 
men  of  sin,  and  through  his  splendid 
reasoning  his  hearers  yielded  willingly 
to  the  power  of  the  gospel.  Besides, 
his  force  of  character  itself  contributed 
intensely  to  rivet  conviction  upon  the 
people.  Thus  he  gathered  around  him 
a  number  of  able  and  resolute  men  to 
help  to  carry  on  the  work  of  saving 
sinners  and  disseminating  the  views 
that  he  had  embraced,  and  which  he 
was  desirous  of  implanting  into  the 
hearts  and  minds  of  his  hearers. 

If  ever  there  was  a  man  ordained  of 
God  for  the  work  of  the  gospel,  that 
man  was  Elder  John  Winebrenner. 
One  of  his  special  gifts  was  to  bring 
sinners  to  repentance,  and  in  this  part 
of  the  ministerial  work  he  had  wonder¬ 
ful  success,  for  he  could  tell  sinners 
precisely  what  they  must  do  to  be 
saved.  His  language  was  so  plain  that 
every  one  understood  him,  and  his 
reasoning  so  strong  that  people  listened 
with  attention,  and  before  they  were 
aware  of  it  were  convinced.  Seldom 
using  notes  in  his  early  labors,  he  would 
preach,  exhort  and  sing  for  hours  at  a 
time  in  apparent  forgetfulness  of  every 
thing  else. 

His  pure  life  and  unspotted  charac¬ 
ter,  his  firm  attachment  and  devotion 
to  whatever  he  believed  to  be  right, 
were  shown  in  all  his  acts.  While  he 


had  many  bitter  enemies,  he  also  had 
hosts  of  true  and  enthusiastic  friends. 
This  caused  him  to  devote  his  time,  his 
talents,  his  means,  his  energies,  his  all 
to  Christ’s  cause  and  its  success. 

He  waged  a  determined  war  against 
sectarianism,  and  tried  to  obliterate  it, 
and  met  with  wonderful  success. 
Preaching  the  terrors  of  the  law  and 
the  efficiency  of  the  blood  of  Christ  to 
blot  out  sin,  he  constrained  thousands 
to  accept  the  overtures  of  the  gospel. 
Much  of  his  success  depended  on  his 
thorough  radicalism.  At  that  time  it 
was  unpopular  to  be  a  Christian,  and 
men  sought  their  Redeemer  from  prin¬ 
ciple  and  a  conviction  of  duty.  For 
they  counted  the  cost  at  the  outset,and 
stood  firm  as  a  rock  in  the  hour  of  trial 
and  persecution,  proving  the  well  esta¬ 
blished  law  that  persecution  and  oppo¬ 
sition  will  seldom  hinder  or  destroy  any 
project. 

It  was  his  custom,  in  his  early  revi¬ 
vals,  to  dismiss  the  congregation,  after 
the  regular  services,  and  to  ask  the 
penitents  to  stay,  so  that  he  could  talk 
to,  and  pray  with,  them.  These  “in¬ 
quiry  meetings”  were  seasons  of  joy 
and  much  divine  power,  and  scores  and 
hundreds  were  converted.  The  meet¬ 
ings  were  characterized  by  much  ex¬ 
citement,  by  shouts  of  triumph  and 
leapings  for  joy.  This  was  called 
fanaticism.  It  was  the  extravagant 
overjoy  of  the  redeemed  soul.  But 
what  they  called  fanaticism  we  call 
reform — the  genuine  reform  from  sin 

unto  righteousness. 

As  a  pastor  he  had  few  superiors. 

Visiting  from  house  to  house,  he  prayed 
with  every  family,  asked  every  one  in 
the  family  whether  they  “  enjoyed  reli- 


15 


gion,”  urged  the  unconverted  to  seek 
their  Savior,  the  converted  to  greater 
diligence,  and  comforted  the  broken¬ 
hearted.  And  through  much  fasting 
and  prayer,  by  the  invisible  power  of 
God,  through  personal  effort  and  faith 
in  Christ,  he  brought  salvation  to  many. 

His  cheerful,  quiet,  unobtrusive  de¬ 
meanor  in  the  family  circle  gave  a 
charm  to  the  religion  that  he  professed. 
He  was  respectful  and  gentlemanly, 
and  did  not  indulge  in  trifling  and  idle 
conversation.  Besides,  he  had  a  great 
deal  of  self-control,  so  that  when  abused 
and  persecuted  he  did  not  retaliate,  but 
met  opposition  with  arguments  and 
smiles.  Teaching  his  converts  to  do 
likewise,  they  usually  bore  the  malig¬ 
nant  railings  of  their  opposers  without 
much  murmuring.  For  he  possessed 
the  power  of  encouraging  the  faint¬ 
hearted,  and  inspiring  the  zealous  to  a 
very  great  degree. 

Being  liberal  towards  ministers  of  all 
denominations,  he  permitted  them,  and 
invited  them,  to  preach  in  all  his  pul¬ 
pits,  at  the  camp-meetings,  and  wher¬ 
ever  he  held  services.  When  some  of 
them  refused  his  generous  offers,  be¬ 
cause  they  held  doctrinal  sentiments 
differing  essentially  from  those  which 
he  held,  he  told  them  to  lay  aside  their 
differences,  and  preach  one  of  their 
“gospel  sermons.” 

As  he  was  religiously  trained  under 
the  teachings  and  influences  of  the 
German  Reformed  Church,  educated 
and  converted  through  its  ministry, 
connected  with  its  Synod  for  eight 
years,  along  with  early  family  preju¬ 
dices,  and  the  expectation  of  losing  a 
large  salary,  it  must  have  taken  a 
severe  struggle  to  change  his  religious 


opinions  and  church  relationship.  It 
has  been  said,  that  there  was  no  occa¬ 
sion  for  the  course  he  pursued,  and  that 
he  should  have  remained  as  a  reformer 
in  the  body.  But,  under  all  the  cir¬ 
cumstances,  this  was  hardly  possible, 
not  only  on  account  of  his  radicalism 
and  advanced  religious  views,  but  also 
because  of  the  uncalled  for  persecutions 
that  met  him  at  every  step,  as  well  as 
the  slanderous  reports  that  were  pub; 
lished  by  his  enemies. 

His  reputation  as  a  minister  of  the 
gospel  was  such  that  crowds  flocked  to 
hear  him.  And  notwithstanding  there 
were  neither  railroads  nor  telegraphs 
at  the  time  he  made  his  greatest  pulpit 
efforts,  his  fame  as  a  preacher  was 
widespread. 

We  quote  the  following  tribute  from 
the  Lutheran  Observer,  August  17th, 
1877,  from  the  pen  of  Rev.  R.  Weiser, 
D.  D.; 

“The  first  revival  of  religion,  of 
which  I  have  any  personal  knowledge, 
was  in  York,  Pa.,  in  the  winter  of 
1825-26.  This  work  started  in  the 
German  Reformed  Church.  Rev. 
James  R.  Reily  was  pastor  of  that 
church,  and  he  had  Rev.  John  Wine- 
brenner,  then  of  Harrisburg,  to  assist 
at  a  communion.  Mr.  *  Winebrenner 
was  then  in  his  prime,  and  was  a  pow¬ 
erful  and  effective  preacher,  especially 
in  German.  The  interest  commenced 
in  the  Keformed  church,  but  soon 
spread  over  the  whole  community.” 

August,  1827,  a  camp-meeting  was 
held  in  a  woods  close  to  the  borough 
of  Lebanon.  Elder  Winebrenner 
preached  at  this  camp-meeting,  and  in 
the  meeting  house  near  by.  He 
preached  with  much  success,  and  when 


16 


he  raised  his  hands  and  shook  his  long, 
thin  fingers,  as  was  his  custom,  there 
were  marvelous  displays  of  God’s 
power.  Men  fell  prostrate  on  the 
ground,  scores  cried  for  mercy,  and 
pardoning  grace  was  poured  into  many 
hearts.  The  supernatural  appeared  to 
prevail  to  such  an  extent  that  super¬ 
stitious  people  were  afraid  to  shake 
hands  with  him,  because  they  said  they 
felt  so  strangely  as  soon  as  he  touched 

them. 

He  did  not  value  or  care  about  money. 
In  the  correspondence  relating  to  his 
call  to  the  church  at  Harrisburg,  not  a 
word  is  written  about  the  amount  of 
salary  he  was  to  get,  and  when  perso¬ 
nally  spoken  to  about  it,  he  said,  “  he 
wanted  only  as  much  salary  as  was 
necessary  for  him  to  live.”  And  though 
he  was  getting  one  thousand  dollars 
salary  per  annum  at  the  time  of  the 
early  church  troubles,  a  very  large  sum 

then,  yet  for  principle  and  for  Christ’s 
sake  he  gave  it  up,  “  esteeming  the  re¬ 
proach  of  Christ  greater  riches  than 
the  treasures  of  Egypt;  for  he  had  re¬ 
spect  unto  the  recompense  of  the  re¬ 
ward.”  It  was  at  this  period  that  one 
of  his  friends  collected  some  money 
and  handing  it  to  him,  he  carelessly 
thurst  the  roll  of  bank  notes  into  his 
vest  pocket,  thanked  the  collector,  and 
exclaimed,  “Trash!”  “He  counted  all 
things  loss  for  the  excellency  of  the 
knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus.”  One  of 
the  petty  persecutions  that  he  suflered 
related  to  matters  of  this  character.  It 
was  the  rule  of  certain  turnpike  com¬ 
panies  to  let  ministers  pass  through  the 
toll  gates  free,  when  on  horse-back,  but 
some  of  the  gatekeepers  refused  him 
this  privilege,  because  they  maintained 


that  he  was  not  a  minister,  so  that  Elder 
Winebrenner  was  often  compelled  to 
borrow  money  for  this  use  when  going 
to  some  of  his  appointments. 

Notwithstanding  many  annoyances  of 
a  like  character,  he  usually  looked  upon 
the  bright  side  of  affairs,  working  on 
with  great  faith  in  God’s  promises. 
On  an  occasion  of  much  trouble  he  was 
preparing  some  manuscript  for  publica¬ 
tion.  At  that  period  only  a  few  church 
organizations  existed  west  of  Pennsyl¬ 
vania,  but  he  said,  “  Good  news  fi’om 
Ohio,”  and  then  read  an  extract  from  a 
letter  giving  an  account  of  a  revival 
“Ah  !”  continued  he,  “it  will  not  be 
many  years  until  the  churches  and  min¬ 
istry  will  be  very  numerous  in  the 
West.” 

He  was  shrewd  in  seizing  a  point,  and 
quick  at  repartee.  By  this  faculty  he 
discomfitted  his  enemies  and  opponents, 
and  gathered  strength  for  the  cause  he 
advocated,  making  his  adherents  more 
firm  and  his  opposers  more  bitter.  A 
few  instances  are  given. 

When  the  Stone  Church  (Salem’s) 
near  Shiremanstown,  Pa.,  was  closed 
against  him,  and  a  large  congregation 
had  assembled  to  hear  him  preach,  he 
stood  on  the  large  flat  stone  at  the  door, 
and  pointing  his  finger  to  the  sky,  said: 
“They  can  lock  church  doors,  but  they 
cannot  lock  the  door  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.”  In. the  evening  his  friends 
fastened  candles  to  the  trees  in  from  of 
the  church,  and  while  preaching  there 
quite  a  number  sought  and  found  sal¬ 
vation. 

After  having  published  an  appoint 
ment  to  preach  in  the  court  house  at 
Harrisburg,  his  enemies  succeeded  in 
getting  the  county  commissioners  to 


17 


lock  the  doors  against  him.  But  he 
stood  on  the  steps,  and  pointing  to  the 
door,  said,  “And  the  door  was  shut” 
(Matt,  xxv:  10),  and  then  preached  a 
sermon  from  the  text. 

His  early  co-laborer,  Elder  John 
Elliott,  having  preached  a  .^ermon  from 
the  text, “Prove  all  things”  (I  Thess.  v: 
21);  and  as  it  was  the  usual  custom  to 
follow  every  sermon  with  an  exhorta¬ 
tion,  Elder  VYinebrenner  gave  out  as 
the  basis  of  his  remarks  the  latter 
clause  of  the  same  verse:  “  Hold  fast 
that  which  is  good.” 

At  the  General  Eldership,  at  Upper 
Sandusky,  Ohio,  1860,  when  in  debate 
one  of  the  younger  delegates  said: 
“Old  men  shall  dream  dreams.”  He 
replied:  “And  your  young  men  shall 
see  visions,  and  they  will  not  be  able 
to  interpret  them.” 

In  the  investigation  of  a  subject  he 
did  not  reach  a  decision  until  he  had 
given  it  a  most  thorough  examination, 
but  when  convinced  he  was  immova¬ 
ble.  He  gave  the  most  rigid  examina¬ 
tion  to  the  ordinance  of  feet- washing 
before  he  decided  it  to  be  a  positive 
command. 

A  union  camp-meeting  was  held  near 
Linglestown  in  1827,  and  on  the  even¬ 
ing  that  this  ordinance  was  attended 
to  he  left  the  meeting  and  went  to  Har¬ 
risburg.  The  opinion  prevailed  at  the 
time  that  he  went  away  because  he  did 
not  want  to  participate  in  it.  The 
same  year,  or  possibly  a  year  later,  an¬ 
other  union  camp-meeting  was  held  at 
Bowman’s,  in  Cumberland  county,  at 
which  time  Rev.  H.  Habliston  preached 
a  sermon  declaring  most  positively  that 
it  was  an  ordinance.  Elder  Winebren- 
ner  sat  on  the  pulpit  an  apparently  un¬ 


concerned  looker-on.  Rev.  J.  Erb 
came  to  him,  clapped  him  on  the  knee, 
and  asked  him  to  participate.  “Do  not 
bind  your  brother’s  conscience,”  said 
he.  “You  believe  that  it  is  a  positive 
command,  and  I  do  not.”  In  course  of 
time  he  examined  the  subject  more 
fully,  and  soon  thereafter  determined 
it  to  be  a  positive  ordinance;  and  at 
the  camp  meeting  held  at  the  same 
place,  the  next  year,  publicly  partici¬ 
pated  in  its  celebration. 

As  he  had  been  brought  up  under 

the  teachings  of  a  pedo  baptist  Church 
he  did  not  give  ap  his  early  convictions 
without  a  good  deal  of  thought  and 
prayer;  but  he  went  forward  gradually 
in  the  right  direction.  At  the  camp- 
meeting  which  he  held  at  the  poor 
house,  near  Harrisburg,  in  1826,  he 
baptized  the  converts  by  several  differ¬ 
ent  actions  in  the  mill  dam  near  by. 
Bat  then  he  was  in  the  transition  state, 
for  at  the  carnp-meeting  held  at  the 
same  place,  in  1830,  he  baptized  them 
by  a  single  immersion,  backwards,  hav¬ 
ing  radically  changed  his  views.  He 
said  that  in  seeking  for  the  truth  on 
this  and  some  other  disputed  subjects, 
he  determined  to  read  the  Bible  through 
on  his  knees,  and  while  doing  so  he  re¬ 
ceived  new  light  and  a  clearer  view  of 
the  right  way  of  the  Lord. 

Elder  Winebrenner  having  fully 
changed  his  views  on  the  action  of  bap¬ 
tism,  made  arrangements  with  Rev. 
.Tacob  Erb  (now  Ex-Bishop  Erb,  of 
Shiremanstown,  Pa.),  to  baptize  him. 
At  fit  St  Mr.  Erb  objected,  on  the  ground 
that  he  was  too  young  a  man ;  but 
Elder  Winebrenner  insisted,  and  told 
him  that  some  young  men  were  further 
advanced  in  the  divine  life  than  many 


18 


old  men.  Besides,  they  had  labored 
together  in  the  ministry  for  many  years. 
Mr.  Erb  was  then  preaching  on  the 
Dauphin  county  circuit  for  the  United 
Brethren  in  Christ,  and  met  his  en¬ 
gagements  punctually.  On  the  day 
that  he  had  appointed  to  baptize  Elder 
Winebrenner,  he  preached  at  the  Peter’s 
Mountain  appointment,  two  miles 
below  Halifax,  and  in  order  that  he 
might  reach  Harrisburg  in  time,  he 
began  his  services  at  8  o’clock  in  the 
morning  and  closed  at  about 
o’clock,  took  dinner,  and  started  at  11 
o’clock  and  rode  to  Harrisburg,  a  dis¬ 
tance  ot  fifteen  miles,  arriving  there  at 
2  o’clock  in  the  afternoon.  A  large 
congregation  had  met  together  in  the 
bethel,  on  Mulberry  street,  where  now 
the  Harrisburg  Hospital  stands.  Elder 
Winebrenner  preached  what  is  now 
known  as  the  1830  sermon  on  baptism. 
Immediately  after  the  preaching,  and 
between  3  and  4  o’clock,  P.  M.,  they 
proceeded  to  the  Susquehanna  river, 
and  Mr.  Erb  baptized  him,  just  above 
where  the  railroad  bridge  now  is.  This 
took  place  Sunday,  July  4th,  1830  (see 
Christian  Index).  The  text  from 
which  he  preached  on  the  above  named 
memorable  occasion  was  taken  from 
Ephesians  iv:4,  5 — “There,  is  ""  *  *  * 
one  baptism.”  He  published  it  in  a 
pamphlet  at  the  time,  and  it  has  been 
since  republished.  Besides  this  sermon, 
he  also  published  one  in  1842,  as  well 
as  another  one  in  1860,  on  the  same 
subject. 

The  following  is  an  account  of  one 
of  the  baptismal  scenes  at  Harrisburg, 
in  1830,  taken  from  the  Christian  ht- 
dexi 


“  A  day  or  two  previous  to  the  tenth 
of  August,  I  was  returning  from  a  tour 
to  the  western  country,  and  came  to 
Harrisburg.  Hearing  that  the  ordi¬ 
nance  of  baptism  was  to  be  administered 
to  a  large  number  of  persons,  by  im¬ 
mersion,  I  delayed  my  journey  to  wit¬ 
ness  the  novel  scene.  About  11  A.  M., 
on  a  delightful  morning,  I  left  my 
lodgings  and  proceeded  to  the  place 
appointed  for  the  ordinance.  As  I  went 
I  perceived  on  my  left  a  company  in 
solemn  procession,  moving  towards  the 
Susquehanna  river.  Their  regular 
movement,  singing  and  devout  appear¬ 
ance  affected  my  mind  most  sensibly. 
I  followed  the  procession,  and  quickly 
we  were  at  the  water’s  edge.  This 
exceeded  all  scenes  I  ever  witnessed- 
The  exercises  at  the  river  commenced 
with  a  hymn  and  devout  prayer,  after¬ 
wards  an  address,  after  which  twenty- 
five  men  and  thirty  women  presented 
themselves  as  candidates  for  the  ordi¬ 
nance.  What  made  the  scene  more 
striking  to  my  mind  was  the  fact  that 
they  had  all  been  members  of  the  Ger¬ 
man  Reformed  Church  for  many  years. 
This  I  had  from  the  mouth  of  one  of 
the  elders,  a  man  who  stands  high 
amongst  the  citizens  of  the  town,  and 
was  one  of  the  candidates.  The  admin¬ 
istrator  walked  down  into  the  water, 
attended  bv  the  male  candidates,  two 
by  two,  and  there  he  baptized  them  in 
a  solemn  manner.  Then  went  down 
the  females  and  submitted  fearlessly  to 
the  command  of  the  blessed  Jesus^ 
The  scene  was  sweetly  awful,  tears 
found  their  way  down  my  cheeks,  my 
cold  heart  relented,  I  felt  that  God’s 

Spirit  was  there  in  a  special  manner. 
I  trust  the  opportunity  and  exercises 


19 


will  never  be  forgotten  by  me;  and  I 
was  not  the  only  one  that  wept.  Almost 
every  face  that  met  mine  was  suffused 
with  tears ;  there  appeared  to  be  a  long 
and  deep  spell  upon  the  beholding  mul¬ 
titude.” 

He  issued  the  first  edition  of  his  Re¬ 
vival  Hymn  Book  March  22d,  1825. 
It  contained  360  hymns,  and  the  de¬ 
mand  for  it  was  so  great  that  in  1827 
it  had  already  passed  through  its  third 
edition,  to  which  he  added  an  appendix 
of  twelve  hymns.  He  continued  to  add 
to  it  new  and  popular  hymns,  and  it 
passed  through  twenty-seven  editions. 
In  its  day  it  was  the  most  popular 
hymn  book  issued,  finding  its  place  into 
many  households,  and  the  hymns  were 
sung  by  thousands  of  people.  They 
gave  life  to  public  worship,  and  were 
sung  in  strains  that  captivated  many 
hearts  and  brought  them  to  the  feet  of 
Jesus. 

Many  will  call  to  mind  with  what 
fervor  he  sung  his  favorite  hymns,  such 
as  his  preferred  invitation  hymn,  “Come, 
ye  sinners,  poor  and  needy his  song 
of  rejoicing,  “Oh!  how  happy  are  they, 
who  their  Savior  obey;”  and  his  song 
of  hope,  “  Jesus,  my  all,  to  heaven  has 
gone,”  with  the  chorus,  “  There’s  a 
better  day  coming.”  He  also  published 
a  German  Revival  Hymn  Book;  A 
Brief  View  of  the  Church ;  The  Sera- 
phina  (a  music  book);  a  volume  of 
Sermons ;  A  Treatise  on  Regen¬ 
eration  ;  The  Reference  and  Pro¬ 
nouncing  Testament:  The  Wander¬ 
ing  Soul,  in  German  and  English ; 
and  in  connection  with  I.  D. 
Rupp,  he  published  the  History  of  De¬ 
nominations  in  the  United  States ;  lastly 
he  compiled  and  edited  the  Church 


Hymn  Book,  a  work  that  met  with,  and 
is  continuing  to  meet  with,  a  degree  of 
success  that  few  hymn  books  have  ever 
attained.  These  hymns  will  be  sung 
and  appreciated  when  most  of  the  eph¬ 
emeral  hymns  of  the  day  will  be  buried 
in  oblivion.  He  possessed  the  very 
rare  faculty  of  striking  the  popular 
chord  in  hymnology. 

He  was  the  first  editor  of  the  Gospel 
Publisher^  which  began  its  issues  June 
5tb,  1835,  and  he  held  that  position  till 
April,  1840.  He  conducted  it  with 
much  zeal  for  evangelical  faith,  and  in 
an  exceedingly  unsectarian  manner. 
And  when  the  Gospel  Publisher  in 
1845  suspended  for  want  of  sufficient 
support,  he  established  The  Church 
Advocate  May  1st,  1846,  a  small  semi¬ 
monthly  paper,  at  that  time,  at  $1.25 
per  year.  He  continued  to  edit  it  until 
May,  1857,  at  which  time  he  sold  it. 
His  chief  reason  for  selling  it  was  “  to 
get  time  to  write  more  new  books, 
reprint  some  of  his  old  ones,  and  to 
travel  more  at  large  to  preach  the  gos¬ 
pel  and  promote  the  work  of  God.” 

Elder  Winebrenner’s  first  wife  died 
Tuesday,  May  20th,  1834,  aged  about 
32  years.  Rev.  Wm.  R.  DeWitt,  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church,  preached  the 
funeral  discourse. 

He  was  married  the  second  time  by 
Elder  James  Mackey,  Thursday,  Novem¬ 
ber  2d,  1837,  to  Mary  H.  Mitchell,  of 
Harrisburg,  with  whom  he  had  four 
children,  one  daughter  and  three  sons, 
all  of  which,  with  his  widow,  are  still 
living,  as  well  as  a  daughter  of  the  for¬ 
mer  marriage. 

He  was  a  brave  leader  in  every  good 
work,  and  feeling  called  to  a  great  field 
of  usefulness,  he  labored  with  a  zeal 


I 


20 


inspired  by  the  grace  of  God.  His 
soul  was  lit  up  with  the  divine  fire,  and 
he  went  forward  fearlessly  “conquering 
and  to  conquer.” 

In  the  anti-slavery  work  he  was  in 
the  front  at  a  time  when  it  was  de¬ 
cidedly  unpopular  and  dangerous  to  be 
engaged  in  it.  Born  and  raised  in  a 
slave  State  (Maryland),  where  slavery 
existed  in  its  mildest  form,  he  saw 
enough  of  its  evils  to  make  him  a  bold 


and  determined  foe  to  it  in  every  shape. 
In  furtherance  of  this  project  he  aided 
in  forming  the  first  Anti-Slavery  Society 
of  Harrisburg,  Pa.,  and  wa*^  one  of  the 
managers  of  it.  This  meeting  was  held 
January  14th,  1836.  At  a  meeting  of 
the  Harrisburg  Anti-Slavery  Society 
held  in  the  meeting-house  of  the 
Church  of  God,  on  Friday  evening, 
January  6th,  1836,  he  was  appointed 
one  of  the  delegates  to  represent  said 
society  in  the  State  Anti  Slavery  Con¬ 
vention  that  convened  in  that  place, 
January  3l8t.  January  22d,  1838,  he 
was  elected  Corresponding  Secretary  of 
the  Harrisburg  Anti-Slavery  Society. 

On  the  Temperance  question  he  had 
very  decided  views,  and  by  precept 
and  example  showed  determined  and 
persistent  opposition  to  everything  that 
intoxicates. 

So,  too,  in  regard  to  the  use  of  to¬ 
bacco.  From  the  pulpit  and  through 
the  press  he  proclaimed  that  its  use  was 
unnecessary,  expensive  and  injurious; 
but  he  was  not  violent,  censorious  or 
abusive  in  his  opposition  to  any  of  these 
evils. 

In  all  movements  for  the  advance¬ 
ment  and  benefit  of  the  human  race  he 
was  pre-eminently  abreast  of  the  times, 
as  was  shown  -by  the  interest  he  always 


took  in  agriculture,  silk- culture,  etc.; 
but  in  some  of  these  things  his  zeal  ran 
away  with  his  judgment,  as  was  shown 
in  the  Morus  Multicaulis  speculation. 

The  religious  work  grew  and  pros, 
pered,  and  through  the  instrumentality 
of  an-  active  and  aggressive  ministry, 
spread  rapidly  and  greatly.  God  blessed 
these  men’s  labors  so  much,  and  gave 
them  such  remarkable  success,  that  an 
Eldership  was  organized,  in  Ohio,  Sep¬ 
tember  17th,  1836;  and  another  in 
western  Pennsylvania,  March  4th,  1844. 
This  made  it  necessary  to  change  the 
name  of  the  first  organized  Eldership, 
to  that  of  East  Pennsylvania.  Elder 
Winebrenner,  with  a  number  of  dele¬ 
gates  from  these  three  Annual  Elder¬ 
ships,  organized  the  first  General  El¬ 
dership  of  the  Church  of  God,  at  Pitts¬ 
burg,  Pa.,  May  25th,  1845. 

He  lived  to  see  the  day  when  the 

body  which  he  was  the  principle 
instrument,  under  God,  in  organizing, 
numbered  hundreds  of  churches,  thous¬ 
ands  of  members,  and  eleven  Annual 
Elderships.  At  the  present  time  there 
are  fourteen  Annual  Elderships,  more 
than  four  hundred  licensed  ministers, 
with  many  hundreds  of  churches,  and 
thousands  of  members  in  sixteen  States 
of  the  Union,  to  wit:  Maine,  Pennsyl¬ 
vania,  Maryland,  Virginia,  West  Vir¬ 
ginia,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Michigan,  Illinois, 
Iowa,  Missouri,  Kansas,  Nebraska,  Ar¬ 
kansas,  Texas,  Indian  Territory.  Be¬ 
sides,  many  members  of  the  Church  of 
God  are  scattered  in  California,  Oregon, 
Dakota,  Minnesota,  Colorado,  Montana, 
and  Washington  Territory.  These 
great  results  may  be  almost  entirely 
attributed  to  him.  Working  under 
many  difficulties,  severe  oppositions 


\ 


21 


and  violent  persecutions,  God  blessed 
him  wonderfully  in  building  the  Church 
of  the  living  God.  He  did  not  leave 
wealth,  for  he  died  poor;  but  he  left  a 
record  on  the  imperishable  roll  of  fame 
that  thousands  may  covet,  and  many 
would  give  great  earthly  possessions  to 
obtain. 

Elder  Winebrenner,  who  was  an 
active  minister  for  about  forty  years, 
often  preaching  every  night,  and  three 
times  on  the  Sabbath,  for  weeks  and 
months  at  a  time ;  besides,  holding  in¬ 
quiry  meetings  through  the  day  and  at 
night,  began  to  show  signs  of  failing 
health.  Nevertheless,  his  health  was 
tolerably  good  until  the  meeting  of  the 
East  Pa.  Eldership  at  Goldsboro’,  in 
November,  1859,  when  he  had  a  severe 
attack  of  cholera  morbus,  from  the 
effects  of  which  he  never  fully  recov¬ 
ered.  Though  somewhat  weak  and 
emaciated,  he  attended  the  General 
Eldership  at  Upper  Sandusky,  Ohio, 
May  28,  1860.  On  his  way  home  he 
took  sick  at  New  Brighton,  Pa.,  but 
after  two  days’  delay  was  able  to  return 
home.  After  this  he  preached  only  a 
few  times,  his  health  becoming  more 
precarious  daily.  As  his  sickness  was 
unto  death,  he  lingered  many  weeks, 
severely  afflicted  with  a  complicated 
abdominal  disease.  Tuesday,  September 
11th,  at  8  o’clock,  P.  M.,  he  had  a  chill, 
and  an  attack  of  fainting,  gradually 
sinking,  till  a  quarter  before  one 
o’clock,  A.  M.,  Wednesday,  12th,  when 
he  quietly  passed  away; — so  quietly, 
that  those  present  did  not  know  that 
he  was  gone.  Elder  A.  X.  Shoemaker, 
pastor  of  the  Harrisburg,  church,  and 
his  own  immediate  family  were  the 


only  ones  present.  Many  of  his  true 
and  tried  friends  visited  him  at  his 
residence  in  North  street,  Harrisburg, 
Pa.,  during  his  illness,  and  were  deeply 
interested  in  his  recovery;  but  to  them 
all  he  spoke  cheerfully  of  his  bright 
hopes.  To  Elder  E.  H.  Thomas  he 
said:  “I  know  that  my  Redeemer 
liveth;  and  because  he  lives,  I  shall  live 
also.”  During  his  last  hours  he  spoke 
to  his  pastor,  and  the  pastor  of  his 
family ,  as  follows:  “Brother  Shoe¬ 
maker,  preach  Je'sus  while  you  have 
health’  “O,  the  glory  of  preaching 
Jesus  in  health!”  “Tell  the  brethren 
to  stick  together.”  “Stand  up  for 
Jesus !  Stand  up  for  Jesus!” 

He  died  at  the  age  of  sixty-three 
years,  five  months  and  seventeen  days. 
His  funeral  took  place  on  Friday,  Sep¬ 
tember  14th,  at  2  P.M.,  from  the  Meth¬ 
odist  church,  which  was  generously 
given  for  the  purpose.  Rev.  Wm.  Bish¬ 
op,  pastor  of  the  Methodist  church, 
made  an  appropriate  and  impressive 
prayer;  and  fitting  addresses  were  made 
by  Elders  E.  H.  Thomas,  James  Mackey 
Joseph  Ross  and  A.  X.  Shoemaker,  and 
the  Middletown  and  Mechanicsburg 
choirs  led  the  singing.  The  last 
rites,  at  the  cemetery  were  conducted 
by  Elders  Wm.  McFadden  and  A.  X. 
Shoemaker,  a  large  number  of  friends 
being  present  from  the  neighboring 
towns  and  country. 

September  12th,  1860,  the  Harris¬ 
burg  (  Pa. )  Telegraph  noticed  his  death 
in  the  following  language:  “Elder 
John  Winebrenner,  of  this  city,  died 
last  night  after  a  lingering  illness.  For 
years  past  the  deceased  has  been  prom 
inently  connected  with  the  Church  of 


22 


God  in  various  capacities.  As  the 
founder  of  this  branch  of  the  Christian 
church,  he  accomplished  a  vast  amount 
of  good,  and  was  honored  and  esteemed 
by  the  entire  membership,  embracing 
many  thousands  in  different  States  of 
the  Union.  The  deceased  was  a  man 
of  considerable  ability,  and  indomitable 
energy,  and  triumphed  over  obstacles 
that  would  have  proved  impassible  bar¬ 
riers  to  many  men  of  less  determined 
will  similarly  situated.  He  enjoyed 
the  respect  of  our  citizens  generally, 
and  his  death  will  be  sincerely  lament¬ 
ed.”  The  same  paper  in  speaking  of 
his  funeral  said :  “All  the  vast  audience 
were  more  or  less  affected  ;  even  strong 
men,  unused  to  the  melting  mood, 
yielded  to  the  sympathetic  influence  of 
the  occasion,  and  let  their  tears  mingle 
freely  with  those  of  the  deeply  afflicted 
mourners.  At  the  close  of  the  solemn 
services  the  remains  of  the  deceased 
were  conveyed  to  the  cemetery,  accom¬ 
panied  by  his  relatives  and  a  large  num- 
berof  his  friends  and  acquaintances,  and 
consigned  to  their  last  resting  place  in 
that  quiet  and  beautiful  ‘city  of  the 
dead.’  He  died,  as  be  bad  lived,  a 


Christian,  and  has  ‘gone  to  his  reward. 
Requiescat  in  pace  /” 

A  monument  was  erected  to  his  mem¬ 
ory,  by  bis  friends,  September  23d, 
1868;  which  is  hexagonal  in  form,  and 
thirteen  feet  high,  surmounted  with  an 
urn  entwined  with  a  spray  of  oak  leaves. 
The  tablets  bear  the  following  inscrip  • 
tions : 

“Erected  by  the  Church  of  God  to  the 
memory  of  John  Winebrenner,  born  in 
Frederick  county,  Maryland,  March 
25th,  1797.  Died  in  Harrisburg,  Sep¬ 
tember  12tb,  1860. 

“  An  able  minister  of  the  New  Tes¬ 
tament, — earnest,  and  sigiially  blest,  in 
his  efforts  to  save  his  fellow  men.  He 
has  perpetuated  his  own  memory,  not 
on  tables  of  stone,  but  on  fleshy  tables 
of  the  heart :  ^They  that  turn  many  to 
righteousness  shall  shine  as  the  stars 
forever  and  ever.’  A  successful  reform¬ 
er,  he  labored  to  build  up  the  Church 
of  God,  she  having  one  name,  one 
faith,  one'  baptism  and  one  mission. 
This:  To  gather  together  in  one  all 
the  children  of  God  that  are  scattered 
abroad.”  ■  . 

Lebanon,  I^a. 


rW-:: 


’f  ■ 

'j 


'•*  i 

■  ;i.7i?i|!ko 

'  »rvri 

r. 

|/>  >*  o'K  -r 

<•  wTri-J 

rYrUc.’ 

jorTJCna 

Yx:  ^  j 

'  ♦  V  •*  >_  *  *.  i  t 

/•o:or. 

7  4  ( 

•'’  t? 

b’  J  f  ■ 

■f?|r  •'  ' 

'  ••  ,  ;  ■  ' 

'  Y' '  <  *.  i  •  • 

'7''; 

r  yt 

■  i  .■  'j 

•  >  ,' 

■■’■  ...¥’~ 

7i>i>if>  :  • 

t  .  At" 

LV‘<)> 

Y-  ejpfs 

i  ■  •  -7- 


nu  l>*,nn  :vJ!t:'  ovj 

■•woiJol  ^ii/  .‘.:  'M5>.t-';in' 

'•'>:  -:•;  ryCt)  *<?  d.7niiaU  3ih  %*i  ivivjiO-/  'V-- 
>5t  : .sil  '/</  fifj '/  Y,  v'.:>0rjiAfi 

-I7i  r.uKC  Vv-.r 

:  ‘r  '  I.  .  ’■  '  i 

7j>r  ,  fjY.  ^&i  h,  jhjB  v  L  *  '  '.' 

iij  (4’3^^{.?  >  —vT^fnr,^ 


i>;iB  Y. c-  k> 


7 


’■7i';.*'S2Vaf •,*£’'  K>  .:  >'t^  '••»;»•; 

-  ■  ■  .  ,  ■  .  * 

*^'^'1'  I'***  V  -  ’  .f ’^iv',';:^  ;: 

»;*, 


^li  id^i:jL  i^o»‘'b7  oi  'oTi  <  r-.«j- 


Aio  Icici  . 

OJ  a'lBJ  ;?Rdlv0GTY  'h: 

Qiij  ae  3iiiiis  ll.«da 

°imckn  Metoooud  A  /bT^'tol 

riomaij  sdi  qjjt  bCM  oi  L^i*x!el  ao 
Olid  yjnu  i  Qm  '?«!{•  -sus  J>o4>  lo 


^£10  bim  niaY'qad  djio 
?i£  3tio  n/  idiflagoi  oT  ^  bidTI' 

bdtaJi,a9>^  &’!«  Jjgdi  lx>T/  lo  52i>tb?it{o  ;>ill 


v: 


r. 


p  .  -  • 

o<i  t?{W  r^;i>ir  ritjs 

trij'jdqh  »  •  *ivffW(  >•;■?,(;  OdT  '■  '•.♦  Yi 
Nj^o  :>..;•  i^A'*  ,;+  i-tJ' ^ 

T;JT6-r:^  *>;.'<  >0  ‘^'JtjaQ 

•  ■r.ij  oi  i>‘.h:JiJ^  <  ' 

iaOJ^ti':i-J  7;.)5».'ic>nq£fi.;.-.  ‘ji.r'i  «.>1  V«f>l6iV 

,jLlv:^V.  JU- ■:'  'i 

L . '  iYois;  ■({'j’j‘>ib  jo  x^.)  .  1 

ULSjkr^  •Mk  ‘K’*  YfioL'  nX'i  iA  j-rx&inifotti  ‘ 
I»ds/j^o»>£>  oGi  id  BJiKa^n  ‘fd' 
£Go*>}&'/(na-)'jrfty^  diii  03  h-rfoyiroj- 
-mm  a  5rjj «.» rij^slst  ■;^vf  Wlu^.{ 
hm  ,fe03iiij4iTXJ5J[jpoa  bafifi£*K:>mbfi|  lo'^  xf 
ai  ^iilq  miU  oi  ■. 

mk  I0  lih*  bna  lobjp 


aH  :V.O'^Adia  ^  ‘ 


'f.: 

✓ 


.  .M, 


<.  - 


•T 

_  ^  •- 


r'. 


'A 


■  >/•• 


:-x  •.(■• 


v  . 


5.  ». 

•< 


,r*-i 


^  u 

>*  t 


I  V 


;  *f  I 
Iv 


.•i  •  '^U\ 


t 


<  •  .V*  v; 


r*  ^  -  I  t 


c^.  . 


V  ^ 
«  * 


•  V  ,  v.  * 


'A 


-*,v 


.  .‘< 

V; 


'<.A  -r  r.  ■: 


V. 


f  k  .' 


< 


»  r 


'  y  .■ 


f 


«:’ 


•  V 


7-/ 


V'  ■  -  1 


% 


'  <. 


i 


7 


4»' 


i- 


i 


:k 


t 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 


77628169 


